Banned nets cause severe harm to marine fisheries

The use of banned nets is causing severe harm to marine fisheries as such nets trawl not hundreds or thousands of small fishes and larva but millions of them. An average 700,000 tonnes of small fish and larva are brought to the Karachi Fish Harbour daily, which end up in fish meals, said Habibullah Khan Niazi, president of Sindh Trawlers Owners and Fishermen Association (STOFA).

He said that this illegal net trend was set by the foreign trawlers, which were allowed to do fishing in our deep sea and the authorities never stopped them to do so. Now, the local trawlers and fishermen are also doing unethical fishing practices.